Identity Thieves Target Tax Refunds

Tax day is less than two weeks away, and this year, for the first time ever, the Federal Trade Commission says tax refunds are the No. 1 target of identity thieves.

Tracey Cochran was anxiously anticipating this year's tax refund, because money was tight.

"I had been unemployed and just started temp work," Cochran told ABC News.

She expected to receive a $2,400 check from the Internal Revenue Service. Instead she received a notice that something was wrong. Somebody else had filed a return in her name, and a thief was trying to intercept her refund.

"I went into a panic, an absolute panic," Cochran said.

Isaac Wolf of Scripps Howard News Service wanted to know if there were more cases like Cochran's. "I found something astonishing," he said. After analyzing more than 1.4 million identity theft complaints, he learned that tax identity theft has more than tripled in the past five years. "Essentially what happens is that someone takes your name and your social security number and they lie to the IRS. They fill out a tax return, and they submit it to the IRS, and frequently they're getting your tax refund check back. It's as simple as that."